Tuesday, January 31, 2017

On November 19, 2015, Trump announced he would consider requiring Muslim-Americans to register with a government database, or worse, mandating that they carry special identification cards that note their faith.

It reminded me of a time when Nazi Germany implemented the Jewish badge (right) – as The Holocaust Center notes on its website, the Nazi-era edicts that required Jews to publicly identify their faith was "one of many psychological tactics aimed at isolating and dehumanizing the Jews of Europe, directly marking them as being different (i.e., inferior) to everyone else". And this served as a prelude to deporting Jews to ghettos and killing centers in German-occupied eastern Europe.

Of course, I am not saying that Trump has ever toyed with the idea of getting Muslim-Americans to sport a symbol (a green crescent?) that would single them out as Muslims. But with Trump, you'll never know, right?
He is a wacko –in case you don't know.

And that's not all. He had come out in support of wholesale surveillance of Muslim-Americans and warrantless searches of mosques. He even praised past NYPD policies that spied on the New York City Muslim community as "great", despite the reality that this controversial program did not yield any leads or even arrests.

And on Friday, President Donald Trump signed yet another executive order.

With a stroke of a pen, about 218 million people from seven Muslim-majority countries (based on 2015 data published by the World Bank) were barred from entering the United States – for a period of 90 days.

These citizens are from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. According to CNN, these countries were named in a 2016 law concerning immigration visas as "countries of concern".

Trump had talked about these countries as "terror-prone" countries. During the GOP primary campaign, he called for banning all Muslims from the US – a statement he never retracted – before shifting toward calling for banning individuals from countries with terrorist links, though he never identified the countries.

Oddly, the ban does not apply to the nationalities of those who carried out the 9/11 attacks, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

UK’s The Telegraph had highlighted that the 3 countries are also where the Trump Organization have done business or pursued potential deals. Interesting!

In any case, it is said that this is just a first step toward establishing a broader ban.

It is unclear how many more countries will be added to the list, but a senior White House official said the Trump administration will be "very aggressive" as it weighs how many more countries to add to the list.

Monday, January 30, 2017

We are all aware that Donald Trump (left) has little love for Mexicans.

And he doesn't care a hoot about rubbing them the wrong way either.

Since day one of his presidential campaign, Trump had demonstrated his racist and xenophobic tendencies.

On June 16, 2015, Trump had labeled immigrants from Mexico "rapists" and criminals.

A couple of weeks later, he told CNN that Mexican immigrants were "killers" too.

In August of that year, he claimed that Mexican officials actually "send the bad ones" to the US of A. For the simple reason that their government didn’t want to pay for them; they didn't want to take care of them.

And now, Trump is going ahead to build a border wall between the US and Mexico – ostensibly to stop the latter's citizens from crossing into the former's territory.On Wednesday, he signed an executive order authorizing construction of the said wall. [Note: Both the countries share a common border of about 2,000-miles (3,200-km)].

Michael McCaul, the Republican chairperson of the House homeland security committee, explained that the wall would be less bricks and mortar and more a “myriad of assets”, including fencing and drones.He maintained: “It’s not going to be a 2,000-mile Chinese wall”.

Actually, there are plenty of walls already along 653 miles, or roughly a third of the total border, to be precise. That is a 444 percent increase from 2005, according to the Washington Office on Latin America. About 1,317 miles have no fencing but the Rio Grande (or Rio Bravo to the Mexicans), accounts for much of that.

Even if the whole stretch is indeed, a wall – it will only be a puny wall. What's the big deal, eh?

And if the wall is built, I don’t believe the Mexicans are going to take it lying down. Methinks, if the Americans go ‘high’, their neighbors can go ‘underneath’ – with tunnels. LOL!

The issue isn’t just about a wall, but also the potential mass deportation of immigrants and a renegotiation of the 23-year-old NAFTA deal that has transformed Mexico into an open, export-oriented manufacturing powerhouse – have shaken the bilateral relationship to its core.

I expect the Mexicans to be riled up.
If they aren't already.

And maybe, LEGO can start selling a LEGO Build Your OwnTrump Wall Creative Building Set – so Trump supporters can build their own wall too.

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Barack Obama (left) has vacated the White House. Goodbye and good riddance!

This man became president riding on a massive groundswell of hope – and yet, in the end, he distressingly disappoints.

He is not much of a politician either. He has left his Democratic Party in a sorry state of dispirited disrepair.

The Democrats have lost Congress. They have been decimated in state legislatures. Even their hoped-for liberal majority on the Supreme Court was blocked. And now the presidency is gone, as well.

Democrats face a tough challenge in the days and years ahead. They have to find a leader for their national committee – resolving an ideological battle between left-wing populists and those who obstinately preach continued Obama-style of lethargy politics, even if it centers around moderation and incrementalism.

Yesterday, Liverpool again succumbed to an inglorious 1-2 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup fourth round. Elimination.I am too stunned to comment. As Jurgen Klopp said: "I'm angry but that's not enough". And for the first time under him, the Reds lost three games on the trot.

It is good to know that some five hundred resident tortoises at the 126-year-old Kek Lok Si Temple in Air Itam, Penang have been moved to a new home – finally – at the Oriental Garden located at the foothill of the temple.

This landscaped area with a cascading waterfall that forms part of the pond, provides not only a bigger but a more natural setting for the reptiles.

Temple abbot Ven Xian Guan said the tortoise pond is open to the public. Since yesterday. It is open from 8:45 AM till 6:00 PM daily.

The temple had previously come under heavy fire for the tortoises’ deplorable living conditions in the pond. Kindly check out the pics below:

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

The Magical Lantern Festival marking the Lunar New Year at Chiswick House in London, January 19, 2017. Reuters pic

From January 19 until February 26, the gardens at Chiswick House in London are hosting the Magical Lantern Festival to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
There are in excess of fifty illuminated lanterns and sculptures spread out over 65 acres.Many of the beautiful displays are accompanied by music and theatre and some are even interactive.
The festival is open Thursday to Sunday 5 PM to 10 PM, with last entry at 9 PM.

Yesterday, I was at No. 1A, Jalan Aerobik 13/43 in Shah Alam. This is the location of Kelab Shah Alam Selangor and this is where the Shah Alam Toastmasters meeting is being held every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. Thanks to club president Veera Manoharan, I presented my CC #3 titled "The Speaking Dead". This is my 521st project speech.

And not forgetting that I also took up the role of the General Evaluator.

Certainly, it was an awesome meeting, and members had demonstrated a prodigious appetite for learning. Better still, the members' enthusiasm was boundless and the energy overflowing. Indeed, a praiseworthy Toastmasters meeting!